Ostriig on 15/2/2012 at 19:25
A while ago I posted about a cascade of problems I was having with my computer which turned out to be due to a bad cluster. Well now it's back and it's hit pretty hard. I turned it on this morning before heading to work to be greeted by a message that my Windows installation wasn't genuine (it is), coupled with errors and service failures. The ones I've counted so far are:
* Aero interface is disabled.
* Event viewer is unavailable. Error is "Event Log service is unavailable. Verify that the service is running."
* Error "dwm.exe - Bad Image" reads "C:\Windows\system32\d3d10_1.dll is either not designed to run on Windows or it contains an error. Try installing the program again using original installation media opr contact your system administrator or the software vendor for support."
* No internet connection. Warning sign next to the icon, stuck on "Identifying..." Running the troubleshooter yields nothing, says it can't identify the problem.
* And another just popped up, I'm guessing this is responsible for the
no internets problem: "jusched.exe - Bad Image" reads "C:\Windows\system32\dnsapi.dll is either not designed etc." just like the d3d10 one.
The first thing I did when I got back was run a check disk and it started listing a ton of files being corrupt and recovery of "orphaned" files and so on. It didn't fix the problem although a second check of the disk found no more corrupted files, so I'm guessing some of the damage was permanent.
Now here's the tricky part. In part, the system's still working. I fired up Steam in offline mode and launched Skyrim, works perfectly. So media players and office programs, all my user data seems to be in place, etc. But obviously some core Windows files have gone stale. And it looks like I don't have any restore points. I guess I must've stupidly disabled the service some time ago.
And now here's what's even more infuriating - I tried putting the installation disc in to run a Repair but it's not visible in the recovery interface. Even though Windows does actually boot off the hard drive. I have a 64bit Windows 7 installation on an OCZ Vertex II SSD connected to a SATA3 port.
Is there anything I can do? Some way to get the recovery interface to recognise my installation and try that? Or some other way to restore core Windows files that have gone bad? I'm really hoping that I can avoid having to reinstall Windows from scratch and lose personalised data and have to reinstall all my programs, any advice would be very appreciated.
Edit:And in the meantime, I've got a new message saying:
Quote:
Windows Activation
Windows must be restored
An unauthorised change was made to Windows. You must reinstall or restore Windows system files to activate.
But like I said, I have no restore points, nor does the install disc recognise my installation when going into repair...
Ostriig on 16/2/2012 at 13:25
I have not, I'll give it a shot tonight when I get home. Will see how it goes, thanks for the suggestion!
Ostriig on 16/2/2012 at 18:11
Just ran it a couple of time, no go. "Windows found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them." System's behaving just as I described before.
I was thinking - in the page you linked there was another jump to how to extract files directly from the installation disc. Could I just copy-paste everything in system32 back in from the disc? The two .dll errors I got are both from that directory and I'm wondering whether it's just some of those files that have spoiled. Basically, are the files in system32 just standard resources, or do some of them get made on installation specifically for the respective configuration, thus ruling out the possibility of a copy-paste job? And, that CBS.log isn't any help, is there a way to get a readable list of the files that the SFC run has identified as corrupted?
lost_soul on 17/2/2012 at 16:51
That is REALLY suspitious, especially the whole event viewer and other troubleshooting tools being disabled. I don't think M$ would do that if someone's software is not genuine. Be aware that some malware will say your hard drive is failing when it infact is NOT. (Maybe the authors work in the HDD industry?)
While repairing computers, I've seen systems with genuine bad sectors on the drive. One of the signs is having the hard drive take FOREVER to do anything. We had one where it was copying data off at about 2 KB/s because it had lots of bad sectors.
Get a Linux CD and check the S.M.A.R.T. attributes of the drive. Grab an Ubuntu 10.10 CD and use "Disk Utility". (
http://update.pcantivirusreviews.com/news/2011/05/is-that-your-hard-drive-failing-nope-its-probably-malware.html)
Al_B on 17/2/2012 at 17:09
Quote Posted by lost_soul
Be aware that some malware will say your hard drive is failing when it infact is NOT. (Maybe the authors work in the HDD industry?)
Yes, they do. In fact, there are also legions of malware authors that work for the processor manufacturers with the sole aim of slowing down your computer so that you buy the next generation processor.
Ostriig on 17/2/2012 at 17:23
I'll give it a go, I've got a Linux disc lying around, though I'd be surprised if it proved to be malware at the root of this. Last time the thing got corruption issues I first went looking for that sort of trouble, including rootkits, and it came out clean.
Ostriig on 21/2/2012 at 14:31
Just to put a nail in this thread's coffin - ended up wiping and starting from scratch. Bikerdude helped me out with it, he flashed a new version of the drive firmware onto it and did a secure erase, so we'll see what's next. Either way, gonna look to make an image of the drive as soon as everything's back on it, and either wait for it to go tits up again or try to swap it out for a better unit. Cheers guys!
